Tips to Give Your Small Business a Boost

For your small business to succeed, you must take steps to promote the products/services extensively. Even though most traditional marketing methods are expensive and may not be affordable for all type of businesses, there is a way out. That way is digital marketing which is also very effective and less expensive. Digital technology revolves very rapidly but even at that, online marketing techniques are still very effective for most types and sizes of businesses. The reason is, digital marketing techniques are more customizable and easier to track and can easily add more value to a business or brand. In today’s digital landscape, below are some tips about proven ways to market a small business online for good results.

Optimize your Website for Search Engines
 
It is like a jungle out there on the internet and the competition is very stiff. The reason you must explore technical means to ensure Search Engines notice your website. The power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) cannot be underestimated by digital marketers as it allows a business to appear in more search engine searches with specific keyword(s). Optimization of a website entails the creative use of target keywords in titles, content, responsive design, fast loading pages, and easy to navigate web structure etc. It is a highly technical online field which you can get done with the services of experts if you do not have the knowledge and expertise to do it yourself.


 
Social Media Ads

Social media is exactly where to be right now if you are a small business owner. Nearly everyone is on social media these days. So, why not explore ways on social media to put your products/services where they can easily be found by the multitude of persons. That place is social media particularly the very popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. That is where you get the most ideal marketing platforms for digital marketers as they allow for easy sharing of information and they are hugely popular to boot. It is helpful to participate/interact on these platforms and to even place cheap ads on them for astonishingly good results.

Guest Blogging

If you are very much at home with the subject matter of your type of business and you are a good content writer, guest blogging is good for your business. There are millions of bloggers and very good blog sites out there on the internet. Many of the sites are already very popular to warrant being associated with because collaboration with expert bloggers in your industry is one of the best ways to give your business a boost online. If you explore ways to reach out to them and convince them with the good content you write how your experience or knowledge can add value to their blogs, they easily take you on. Most of the very popular blogs are open for guest posts with peculiar guest posting rules and guidelines. These you can take good advantage of. If however you are unable to write good content yourself, you can contract guest blogging services from experts to help you reach your target audience by selecting the right blogs/websites to make your posts live on.

Direct Blogging

Blogging is all about content marketing. It is just finding a way to get out your knowledge and expertise which benefits others. Online marketing experts insist that creating a blog for your business website and publishing high quality, problem solving and informative content regularly on it is one of the most effective online marketing tactics to generate good results for any business. When your blog becomes very popular online, it translates to traffic and eventual sales.

Email marketing
 
These days, some marketers argue that email marketing is obsolete but they do not deny the fact that it still turns in good marketing results. Email marketing campaign is a very effective method to reach and attract target customers but first, you must build a list. When established, email list becomes a very valuable asset for your email campaigns.  It comes very handy for sending out large quantity emails with valuable content, knowledge or product offers. Feedback from these mails can give your business some valuable exposure and even sales.


 
Video Marketing

Video marketing is visual content marketing which habitually gets better traffic and results than written content marketing. You can easily create product reviews, tutorial videos and some sort of interesting video content that people want to view then get it on YouTube and even Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Getting it on YouTube is more advantageous though. YouTube is the most powerful and free video marketing platform that allows anyone to create and market promotional video content free of cost. That appeal no doubt is to every good marketer’s delight. What is most important in visual content marketing is to be mindful at all times that people always want to watch something interesting and appealing much more than just a promotional content. That is what gets the much needed traffic and sales better.

How To Brand Your Business With Digital Marketing

According to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.” It is that important. Every business depends heavily on its brand to attain any measure of success in our hugely competitive markets whether through traditional marketing or digital marketing. Digital marketing means promoting your products/services on the internet by way of Google Ads, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, etc. Whereas Traditional marketing means promoting such products/services by way of banner ads, flyers, brochures, templates, Radio and TV, etc, These are all in a marketing effort to build trust among customers because no brand ever gets any measure of success without first building trust and relationship with customers. In the entire branding process, you must take into account three elements of customer trust which are, promise, competence, and integrity.

Here are some tested and proven ways to build your brand through digital marketing:

Content Marketing

This involves both visual and written content posted regularly on your website/blog. It means marketing your products/services through content updates which must be related to your business particularly the products/services you have on offer. That is what helps to put out there what your business should be known for which becomes the brand known to your customers. 

Search Engine Optimization, SEO Marketing
 
If you want your business to be noticed widely online, search engines must first find and rank it. Top search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing not only find your business but help it to rank at the top of their search results page if your content and website is well liked by customers. Search Engine Optimization, SEO, works best for long term marketing results by continually sending traffic to your website if the site is ranked high enough for such benefits. It is one great way to brand your business online.

Social Media Marketing 
 
These days, nearly everyone is on social media. You build your brand easily by getting it out there where nearly everyone is. That means promoting your products/services through different social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc. Because of ease of use, sharing of content and popularity of social media, it makes branding fairly straight forward and easy. This you do through regular posting of pictures, images, videos and infographics to attract customers and build your brand.

Google Ads

You can use Google Ads for both branding and selling of products/services because they entail display ads, search ads, YouTube ads and shopping ads which all have different goals. Display ads help in the branding of a business, products/services while Search ads help in getting sales. YouTube ads help in engagement and awareness of your brand while Shopping ads help in promoting e-commerce businesses. 

 

What is Digital Marketing?

 At times, business marketers interchange digital marketing with online marketing in their business nomenclatures. Digital marketing is simply a marketing model which covers a wide range of tools and tactics designed to create brand awareness and name recognition for brands. The introduction and widespread proliferation personal computers, and other digital devices like tablets and smart phones gave rise to the digital age phenomenon. Most of these devices are so popular and easy to use for online marketing business that nearly every marketer currently keys in to them as very handy tools for the business. The real reason nearly every marketer is now involved in digital marketing.
Popular digital marketing practices among marketers include:

1.    Personal/Business Websites
2.    Other Online Advertising
3.    Email Marketing
4.    Video Marketing
5.    Influencer Marketing
6.    Search Engine Optimization, SEO
7.    Search Engine Marketing
8.    Social Media Marketing
9.    Social Media Advertising
10.    Infographics Creation and Promotion
11.    Podcasting
12.    Webinars
13.    Blogging
14.    Guest Blogging
15.    Content Marketing

Many digital marketers are online daily doing any of or a combination of all the above to get their businesses going. What works well for one person may not necessarily work well for another person because of our individual differences as human beings. What matters is to determine what works best for you in your own chosen line of business. What works well for you is what you should very well do to get the desired results every marketer craves for. That is what expert digital marketers recommend.

 

How to Brand your Business

When you want to brand your business, the first thing you do is to make an honest examination of your product/service. Identify the qualities that you expect to appeal to your target market and emphasize them in your brand making sure to leave out the qualities that might appeal to others, but not necessarily appealing to your target market. If we accept the definition of American Marketing Association that a “brand” is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers", we will then come to terms about how to brand any business we are involved in. Practically, and in a business sense, a "brand" can represent any organization, project, campaign, or cause and can take many forms; including a name, sign, symbol, color scheme, slogan or any combination of a name, sign, symbol, color scheme or slogan. Anything, just anything that distinguishes a business very distinctly from any and all others defines a brand. 


 
Anytime any day, it makes a very good marketing sense to brand your business taking into consideration that an effective brand requires an attention grabbing name, logo, slogan and color scheme among many other very distinct and unique qualities. Specifically, you have no other choice but to do the following as a matter of necessity if you want to brand your business and make any meaningful impact with the business.

Choose a unique name for the business

The name you choose must be sufficiently unique as to identify you and you alone in the entire business world. Any name you choose must in addition be in compliance with the local laws in your clime taking into consideration all Intellectual Property issues so as not to infringe on the exclusive legal rights of others. Because your name is an essential part of your brand, you must endeavor to choose it very carefully. Your choice must as of necessity, convey the positive qualities that make your business so unique as to appeal directly to your target market. 

Create a unique logo for the business

Every marketer must recognize that a logo is a “graphic, a symbol of other design, used to express the identity of a business.” To create a catchy and unique logo, you must let your imagination run wild depending on what you want to create. What is very important here is that your logo must convey succinctly what you want it to convey, that is, your attractive qualities which will appeal to your target audience. At a glance, that message must be decently and uniquely conveyed. If you are unable to create a logo on your own, there are many free or very inexpensive Websites that can help you create your own logo. Very handy is the Google "Free Logo Creator" which you can use freely and easily.

Create a slogan for the business

Creating a slogan could be very tricky indeed because of the dicey nature of English as a universal business language. You must know what you are doing and what you want to covey. A slogan is simply a way of playing around with words to meet the unique needs of your business. A lot of thought must be given to the words you want to use and how you want to use them to convey the qualities of your product/service.  A good slogan must be a short, striking and memorable phrase that conveys your business identity. It must be all words and nothing else, not even graphics or photos. A good slogan must be made entirely of words which can be included in your logo to pass on a business message uniquely and quickly.  

Tips to Create a Good Brand

 To create a successful brand, you must take a bit of background information/ guideposts into consideration in the process. The first thing you do is to make an honest examination of your product/service with a view to clearly identifying the qualities that should appeal to your target market. You then take steps to emphasize them in your brand, making sure to leave out the qualities that might appeal to others, but not necessarily appealing to your target market. If we accept the American Marketing Association’s definition of a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers", you will discover that your brand must as of necessity be completely woven around your product/service for it to make any business impact. That is why your "Brand" must identify your product/service adequately and set it distinctly apart from others. Because, your brand is the first opportunity you have to tell others particularly your potential customers who you really are and what you are offering, adequate care must be taken to see that it performs that function effectively. If not, it is useless.

The next consideration is expectation. Your brand must tell everyone at a glance what to expect from you. What exactly can you do for them in terms of value and how you go about doing it is very important in branding. Can your brand deliver quick and excellent service efficiently and in good time? A good brand must push out and identify with all the qualities that give your product/service value. You may consider higher quality and higher cost or lower but acceptable quality at fairly lower costs. These are some of the things customers want to know about and your brand must help them to know about them. The real reason, your brand is one great way to offer information about yourself or your business in some kind of a short-hand way. Therefore, in designing your brand, you must think and reflect deeply on the kind of questions that people may have about you and your product/service. These questions you must try to address by the way you brand yourself and your business. That is one of things that distinctly set you apart from others. One of the great functions of a good brand!

A good brand not only identifies you, but it identifies the product/service you have to offer. For that reason, it must as of necessity provide the answers to such questions as: What are the strong qualities of your product/service? What sets it apart from others? What makes it appealing? What makes it unique? Why must a buyer go for it? etc, etc. You must note very carefully that, if your brand does not clearly set you apart from the others, it will not be an effective brand. Having an ineffective brand is as good as not having a brand at all.

Expert Blogger Marketing Tip: Build a solid brand

Expert bloggers almost always settle on a brand to ply their trade. Once this is done, churning out good content becomes the blogger’s main preoccupation. Top players in the blogging world have their branding down to an art and a science. Working on a chosen brand, they invest valuable time fine-tuning the image and the voice that connects with their audience. Their mission and purpose are crystal clear, and they understand the needs of their subscribers which enables them to deliver the right information that attracts the right readers. They serve a specific niche and have a laser focus on serving that audience.

Successful bloggers not only know the demographics of their ideal audience, they know their struggles, dreams, hopes, and fears. They know what they buy, who they follow on social media, where they congregate online, and what motivates them. They use this information to tailor their content to their audience’s needs. Most times, for these successful bloggers, their main preoccupation is how to write to an ideal buyer in a way that will compel them to make a change. That is the catch. First you’ve got to create who is an ideal buyer you are interested in. That leads in effect creating a buyer persona. That done, that imaginary person becomes the fellow everything you do in your blogging business is targeted at.

Going forward, while using SEO best practices and analytics tools, expert bloggers use data so generated to help them make decisions about the needs of their audience and the keywords to target. From same data, they also determine the content to develop and promote that will attract their ideal readers. Doing these things over time, somehow they manage to become thought leaders and authorities in their chosen industries.  These results are expected because they have put in the work to build relationships and trust with their audience. Building a solid brand is one great way expert bloggers get to make real impact in their marketing activities.

Creative Influencer Marketing Tactic: Engage a Brand Ambassador

 In these days of Internet, Social Media and Television, news travels extraordinarily very fast and celebrities are easily created and promoted or at times even hyped around the world. Sports and entertainment industries somehow get to provide the bulk of the celebrities we see around us. For some fee or even pro bono depending on the product you want to promote, you can engage brand ambassadors to help push the product using their celebrity status. Engaging Brand Ambassadors can really be some very good influencer marketing tactics if expertly matched with a product or service.

Field experience has shown that Influencers can make perfect brand ambassadors at events like trade shows or conferences. They can participate in trade show booth appearances, host branded parties or receptions or simply attend with the goal of boosting brand engagement by posting photos, videos and commentaries about the event. Brand Ambassadors seen publicly using or endorsing a product is really good as influencer marketing and the results are quite good for most brands.


 

5 Ways to Lead Your Business from the Front

Image Credit: Wikimedia.org

To be an effective business leader is no tea party. You must train yourself sufficiently and be ready to take responsibility at all times. That is about the only way you can expect to be effective while every other member of your team can have the confidence to look up to you to provide leadership. You can’t do so effectively and efficiently if you stay on the side or behind. The best place to lead from is in front.

Here now are 5 things you can do to position yourself to lead your business from the front.

01. Dress and act the part. To be a leader, you must be able to dress like a leader. You’ve got to dress to influence and not to impress. That way, your appearance will always be consistent with your personal and professional brand. Your employees will take a cue from you if they are impressed. That gives your leadership authority.

02. Demand and act on feedback. Not many employees willingly give feedback to their bosses. If you encourage them to willingly give you feedback, such information enables you to lead exactly the way they expect you to. If for example some worker tells you they believe you'd be more effective by communicating more clearly that no doubt will help you to work more to improve your communication down the line.

03. Always walk your talk. Any time you tell someone you’ll do something, be sure you do it. Never make promises you're not sure you can keep. Nothing kills your credibility quicker than a breached promise or unfulfilled expectations. If everyone in your team knows you to walk your talk, they tend trust you more. That confers real leadership legitimacy on you.

04. Support your employees to support your customers. Leading by example is one credible way to lead from the front. If your team members see you treat customers and other persons shabbily, they tend to take a cue from you. For example, asking your team to be courteous to customers and being a jerk to them yourself is not only incongruent but also hypocritical. The way you treat people is always a very clear barometer for everyone on your team.

05. Grow yourself to grow your team. The world we live in is rabidly dynamic. That affects all our businesses too. As a leader, you can’t afford to be in a rot when it comes to acquiring knowledge for personal improvement. Many of your employees will do as you do, if they admire your leadership position. That way, you are leading from the front. Ultimately, there are only two credible ways to effectively grow your business. You must be able to grow yourself and grow your team. Those are the two ways. All told, as you and your team improve, so do service levels, operational efficiency and everything else. Leading from the front can’t be any clearer.

5 Holiday Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Well, the holiday season is here. People are going to buy like never before and sellers are going to sell like never before. For small businesses, it is smart to “catch the bug” of the holiday season and to make the most out of it. Above all else, you must see the holiday as a time of great opportunity. Many people expect to come face to face with marketing messages this time of the year. You must seize the opportunity to showcase and re-position your brand. These here 5 tips will help you out.

#1. Respect Differences in Beliefs. The world has become a very complex and sensitive place to live in. You must factor in that in your holiday sales campaigns. Don’t assume that everyone celebrates Xmas because in reality not everybody does and at least not with the same intensity and enthusiasm. For your campaigns to be effective, you must show respect for the beliefs, traditions and customs of others.

#2. Mark What Works and What Doesn’t. As a marketer, all you want always are good results from your efforts. Bearing in mind that your holiday marketing campaigns won’t always resonate, it pays to try a new angle each time until you find something which sticks. It is what sticks you should maximize your storyline on this season for optimal results.

#3. Take Your Brand Where the People Are. This is just natural. You must put your brand before your customers wherever they may be in the world. As with all marketing campaigns, you must make sure you’re using the right outlet for your message. It is the right outlet which gets the message to the right people you are targeting. For you to be effective therefore, it pays to know where your customers are “living,” in a digital sense. That is where you must put your brand before them.

#4. Don’t Make Unrealistic Assumptions. Christmas carols may be sweet music to the ears of many people but you can’t assume that all your customers delight upon hearing Christmas greetings. That is why it pays to be sensitive to the beliefs of others. For many, Xmas is no celebrations season so, you can’t force your celebration down their throats. By understanding what your business is, what you want to present and how your audience feels, that is the only effective way to make your campaign resonate well with your customers in this season.

#5. Watch Your Promotion Expenses. It is true that word-of-mouth marketing really escalates around holiday seasons. This is because holidays naturally bring many people together seasonally. When people are together on such special occasions, what do they do? Well, they simply talk and talk about any and everything under the sun. Inevitably, such talks come around to trends, products and bargain deals. These word-of-mouth banters are usually cheaper and more reliable to promote products than expensive ad campaigns which are very common during holiday seasons. Spending too much money on campaign ads during holiday seasons is usually not a very smart marketing strategy.